CD-ROM helps kids learn Ukrainian alphabet (11/03/96)

CD-ROM helps kids learn Ukrainian alphabet

by Nestor Gula

TORONTO - There's a whole new way of learning and teaching children the Ukrainian alphabet.

This often arduous task, - against objections like "Why do I have to do this, Mom?" - is made easy and fun by a newly released interactive CD-ROM titled "Kozatska Abetka."

This CD-ROM, for the Windows platform, is a talking ABC book that presents a fun-filled introduction to the Ukrainian language. "Kozatska Abetka" has a simple interface that provides an enjoyable platform for children who are starting to learn the Ukrainian language. "Kozatska Abetka" is designed for children between the ages of 2 and 6. Using all the tricks multimedia offers, it means to entertain the child as well as educate. As a Ukrainian multimedia educational tool, Kozatska Abetka is the first of its kind on the market.

Using "Kozatska Abetka" is very straightforward. Each letter has a separate screen with a humorous rhyme, a zany illustration and a snippet of Ukrainian folk music. A letter is selected, the appropriate music sounds out and the rhyme is read, in well-enunciated Ukrainian. From there one can hear individual words of the rhyme, hear individual sentences read, hear the letter pronounced or listen to the poem or music again. All you do is use the mouse to point and click on whatever you feel like reviewing.

Getting from letter to letter is a snap (or a click). From anywhere in the CD-ROM you can explore the alphabet alphabetically, of course (forwards or backwards), or in a random pattern as one wishes. Simply clicking on the letters bordering the illustration one can visit any letter of the Ukrainian alphabet.

The child, or adult, can also explore the alphabet through images that are fragments of each letter's accompanying illustration. In a different section the whole alphabet is sung. Although aimed at young children, "Kozatska Abetka" can teach, and entertain, an adult as well. This writer had fun cruising (surfing is for the Internet) through the CD-ROM, even chuckling at the comical illustrations and rhymes.

"Kozatska Abetka" was produced by SvitCOM Inc., a Toronto-based software company that specializes in multilingual applications. In business since 1992 it has released "MultiTYPE!" and "MultiTYPE! PRO," an application to facilitate the creation of multilingual (Cyrillic+) documents in Windows 3.1, "Akademia Set" for the Slavic academic community that uses IBM-compatible computers and MS Windows 3.1 environment and "CY Font Series," a collection of 12 decorative English/Cyrillic fonts.

SvitCOM's president, Adrian Lepki, said that " 'Kozatska Abetka's' interface was designed specifically so children could navigate the various elements of the CD-ROM by themselves." To ensure this he had several children involved in the design process itself. According to Mr. Lepki the design process took a great deal of time to strike the right balance between simplicity and challenge. "We did not want 'Kozatska Abetka' to look like a child designed it. But we did not want it to be so complicated that a child would become frustrated with it and not learn," said Mr. Lepki.

"Kozatska Abetka" went through many test versions before the final copy was released at the beginning of September, 1996. Aside from children consulting on the design of this CD-ROM, Mr. Lepki used the services of Ukrainian educators and linguists to get everything right.

A sneak preview of "Kozatska Abetka" can be seen on the Internet, albeit without the sound and many of the interactive elements, at http://www.io.org/~alepki/.

You can contact SvitCOM by mail: 70 Cloverhill Road,. Suite 4, Toronto, Ontario, M8Y 1T6, Canada; by telephone; (416) 252-9828;, by fax: (416) 259-0669; or by e-mail, [email protected].